I remain convinced that, at this stage in the terraforming process, a small net hydrogen gain and a considerable net capital gain are preferable to a large hydrogen gain and a smaller profit.
Fortunately, one of Fnord's arguments tweaked something in my head that may let us combine the best of both approaches.
See, for Earth, it isn't about importing element X or substance Y; it's about energy, and, more specifically, about energy that's cleaner than what it's using already but can be handled by the same infrastructure.
So, first the Castles build some handwavium widget - call it a Shipstone - and then they charge it up; the nature of the stored energy is irrelevant for our purposes - what matters is that it can be gotten out on demand. When they're full, you load them in the freighter bound for Earth and dump them at a VTP-owned chemical plant somewhere along the Austrailian shoreline in the absolute middle of nowhere. These plants use the Shipstones' stored power to suck in CO2 from the air and HOH from the sea and run them through another wavetech gadget that converts them to (insert hydrocarbon flavor of choice), which is highly salable.
In other news, seeding Venus with bacteria that contain and integrate handwavium into their life cycle is different from a wavetech air scrubber in that both pass things in their environment through them without a change beyond chemical arrangement, but the bacterium is both self-replicating and small enough to be taken into a human body. IOW, the problem isn't the air, it's the stuff floating in the air.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Fortunately, one of Fnord's arguments tweaked something in my head that may let us combine the best of both approaches.
See, for Earth, it isn't about importing element X or substance Y; it's about energy, and, more specifically, about energy that's cleaner than what it's using already but can be handled by the same infrastructure.
So, first the Castles build some handwavium widget - call it a Shipstone - and then they charge it up; the nature of the stored energy is irrelevant for our purposes - what matters is that it can be gotten out on demand. When they're full, you load them in the freighter bound for Earth and dump them at a VTP-owned chemical plant somewhere along the Austrailian shoreline in the absolute middle of nowhere. These plants use the Shipstones' stored power to suck in CO2 from the air and HOH from the sea and run them through another wavetech gadget that converts them to (insert hydrocarbon flavor of choice), which is highly salable.
In other news, seeding Venus with bacteria that contain and integrate handwavium into their life cycle is different from a wavetech air scrubber in that both pass things in their environment through them without a change beyond chemical arrangement, but the bacterium is both self-replicating and small enough to be taken into a human body. IOW, the problem isn't the air, it's the stuff floating in the air.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"